2.2.3 Literary adventure - Training Day Pt 3

<div id="i4c-draggable-container" style="position: fixed; z-index: 1499; width: 0px; height: 0px;"><div data-reactroot="" class="resolved" style="all: initial;"></div></div>*Pffffrrrrrrttttt*

I roll over and try not to breathe through my nose.

I fail.

"God damn that stinks. Eugh.. good grief." I say to no one in particular, talking to myself is a thing I do at times.

"I am sorry sir, I am not able to process that particular sensation." A dignified voice says.

"Fuck? DQ?"

"Yes sir?" The robot questions.

It's too fucking early for this shit.

"May I make you a nice warm cup of caf sir."

"I... Caf?"

"Also known as coffee sir, it is quite popular throughout the sector. One of my primary duties was providing a nice hot cup of caf to my masters at Terrkurt Shipping sir. I have the necessary equipment in my accessories kit." The Droid explains formally.

"Noted DQ, I haven't had coffee for most of a year... I've been using potions instead. Fuck, I didn't even know it existed in this place." I say to the roof of my small apartment.

"Then I must insist that you allow me to prepare some for you sir. I truly am quite exceptional at the preparation of such beverages, forty years of practice will do that to a droid." The machine fusses.

"That... That will be fine DQ. Let me take a shower first okey." I lurch to a sitting position, the droid watches me from across the room his Dome head swiftly turns back to the book in its spindly arms, it tuns the final page and stacks the book neatly in a pile of others it's own size.

"Exceptional master." The machine replies enthusiastically.

"Eugh." I wipe sleep out of my eyes and look at the machine. "DQ I don't quite remember you being anywhere near this chipper yesterday." I leave the question unsaid as I eye the machine and my brain slowly begins to get it's shit together.

"Sir, I was simply processing the functions of my new hardware and assessing the nature of the tasks which I have been provided for optimal efficiency Sir."

"One too many sirs there DQ." I say blearily

"Sorry Sir. I am an administrative droid sir. With the hardware you have provided me I was anticipating that you may require more dangerous work of me sir. I am pleased to recognise that all you need me for is simple filing sir."

"And?"

"Sir?"

"Your opinions on magic as specified by those texts."

"Still Processing Master." The droid says formally, without a hint of snark.

I sigh.

"To early for this shit. As you were DQ, I'm going to have a shower." I say and roll my sorry arse off the couch I'm using for a bed, my blanket falls to the floor and I snatch my dressing gown to keep myself warm.

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The small almost delicate ceramic cup sits before me, a whisp of steam rising from it's surface and a deep brown liquid sitting in the bottom. It smells soooo good, the deep instincts of caffeine addiction clamour for the deep brown fluid and the life giving Go Juice within.

I take a careful sip and...

Oh dear, that droid certainly knows it's stuff.

"Best coffee I've had in more than a year. Good grief." I mutter to myself.

"Thank you sir, I strive to excel."

"So DQ, what did you used to do?"

"I am an administration droid sir. I administered sir, I ran the accounts for Terrkurt Shipping and maintained the office. My duties were cleaning, accounting, project tracking and, when the situation called for it, recording and analysis. It was my duty to ensure that the company and it's employees were operating at peak efficiency throughout the day."

"Forty years?"

"Yes sir, A long and illustrious service sir. I am thankful that you have decided against a memory wipe."

"It's nothing mate. Experience like that is long to build and almost impossible to replace, removing it would have been counterproductive at best, catastrophic at worst. Anyway... Do you want to work for me DQ?"

"Sir?"

"It's a simple question. I... I'm not big on the whole slavery thing and you are clearly a sapient being, you know, with your own opinions n shit, physical substrate notwithstanding."

"I don't believe I understand the question sir."

Ah.

If freedom is not a thing you are programmed to be able of thinking of then it's not a thing which you think of.

Or comprehending for that matter.

"DQ. I believe that the contents of this room, if they are released to the wider population will probably cause more or less instantaneous disorganised galaxy wide uprisings as people gain the ability to effectively hinder the empire with nothing but a few gigabytes of data. I also believe that droids like yourself will be able to take advantage of at least some facets of the knowledge contained here, probably a bit more than some which probably means that one or more droid uprisings are on the cards too. I purchas... Acquired you because you are an easily upgraded class one droid compatible with clone war era separatist hardware. I intended to have you record and categorise the knowledge in this room and set up a bunch of dead man's switches so that If I or my allies are unable to keep this knowledge safe it will get to the people who need it and probably the rest of the galaxy as well."

"If you don't mind me asking sir, why do you not turn the information over to the relevant authorities? Surely they could benefit from the abilities described within."

"Ah yeah. The empire, not quite so orderly as the republic once was."

"Sir, I do not believe that matches my history files."

"I.... Right, the Empire is a classic Sith based civilization. Powerful dark force user in charge, lots of infighting in the officer classes, faceless foot soldiers and so on and so forth. I have no reason to believe that the imperial officers, already chosen for ruthlessness and ambition will not schism rapidly on the discovery of this information. The other reason, aside from the genocide, extortion and murder which the empire is fond of on an institutional level is Project Stardust. A planetary mass scatter device which is under construction as I speak, it's probably going to come online sometime in the next five years. Which is bad because a regime which builds planet killing death rays to silence internal dissent probably isn't going to be proliferating the happy fun civil growth aspects of magic relative to the mind control and wholesale devastation aspects of magic. Which, again, is bad."

The droid sits there for a moment, lights blinking and the faint ticking of it's internal components turning over while I take another long sip of the glorious addiction sating beverage.

"Based on observation I believe your assessment of the character of the imperial officer corps is not inaccurate." The droid states formally.

"You've dealt with them before?" I ask.

"Twelve months ago Terrkurt Shipping won a contract with the Imperial Navy. By my best assessment it was quite lucrative. The conditions changed, We were lucky they were not changed further. Or at least so I was told." I can almost hear the bitterness in the mechanical voice.

"And yet I picked you up at a liquidation sale."

"Yes Sir." The droid says formally, I grimace at the implication.

We sit in silence for a few minutes.

"This is going the be dangerous DQ, I'm training a strongly Force Sensitive apprentice, am trading in high value and exotic historical goods and recently made a deposit on a starship. There is a distinctly non zero chance that in the not too distant future battalion of stormies are going to raid this place and pretty much kill everyone, we might even get and inquisitor or two. If you want I can find you a nice little coffee shop which will appreciate your skills or you could just roll on out that door and never look back." I say sadly.

"I don't think that will be necessary master, I am quite satisfied with my new directives." the machine replies formally.

"Well then. Welcome to the team."

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Rule 1: cardio.

It holds true for adventurers and bullshit spacmagic knights as much as it does for zombie survivors so despite the many and varied protests from my body I'm hauling arse around the sublevel running tracks as best as I can.

I am not a good runner, legs are too short, torso's too long, frame is too heavy even if I wasn't carrying a few more kilos than I should be. Of Course Chanim, the little scamp, is even worse than I am in that regard. The girl nearly sprints along next to me as we try to make our best time over the last fifty meters or so until the scheduled rest stop.

The twins are already there, standing around waiting for us slowpokes with the kettle already on the boil. How you ask? By being seven fucking feet tall and having a physique very nearly made for running. What for me for Chanim is a roughly half hour run is for them barely twenty five minutes. Well it was when we started to do this. I'm pretty sure that the both of them are considerably faster now than when we started as am I. Pretty sure it's something to do with all of the magic we've been using or perhaps their force sensitivity has been rising.

Who knows?

I'll throw some science around and see what sticks. See if what I can remember of sports sciencey stuff still has any relevance in this universe..

Note to self: have DQ download textbooks on sports sciencey stuff. The force and magic might be bullshit but their effects should still be measurable and quantifiable. It's better to get ahead of the curve now as opposed to when the galaxy is in the process of exploding in an orgy of insurrection.

Errai smiles widely as we approach, she's gorgeous as she empties a little bag of miscellanious herbs, flowers and ground coffee into a kettle I prepared precisely for this purpose and clicks the small power unit at it's base.

By the time the two of us lumber up to the pair of them the kettle is whistling and Errai pours out measured amounts into each of our four mugs. It isn't a proper potion, it isn't concentrated enough or focused enough for that but with the amount of ingredients swimming around in the mix it's a low calorie pick me up which kicks the arse out of anything which hasn't been outlawed in a dozen sectors and/or will make your heart explode.

"Mmmmm That's nice Alex. Coffee?" Djingo says as he holds the ceramic mug delicately in his too large hands.

"Yeah mate. Didn't even know it existed in this universe, it's good stuff too. Better than what I usually have at home."

"Mmmm tastes good." He says and precisely takes another sip, just enjoying the moment.

I suppress a small chuckle at the large man folded origami like into a sitting position holding a tiny ceramic cup and clearly enjoying every drop.

"You're faster today Chanim, you too Alex." Errai comments.

"Thanks E." Chanim chirps and they clink their cups together.

It tastes a little like coffee, not much, but a little. The spices I've mixed in are all restore health, stamina and fortification types. The mix even avoids any deleterious side effects which took a hellavalot of testing and the end result is a long lasting verve in the body. You feel stronger, more in tune with the world and all of those niggling little twinges a normal person sort of builds up over time fade in the warmth of the weak potion.

I let my shoulders settle and groan happily.

"That... That was good." Djingo says, placing his cup on the little mat we have the tea set on and rises to his feet in one long graceful motion. "I need to get to work. Coming Chanim?" He asks, The teen squeaks assent and jumps to her feet. This part of the run is actually going to be a bit of a competition between the two. There's a few shortcuts on the way to the garage which Djingo simply can't fit through, Chanim of course doesn't have that particular problem.

Chanim takes off at what's almost her top speed, little legs moving in a blur while Djingo lurches in to a deceptively swift loping run, his long legs eating up distance despite his considerably slower steps.

"Look at them go. They're adorable." Errai comments as Djingo takes a half hearted swipe at Chanims ears as he passes her only for the cat to scramble up his back and use him as a springboard to get up on the ledge of one of the buildings rimming the walkway.

I hear her faint cackle as she scrambles adroitly up the lip of the building and onto the walkway above.

"You are aware that yesterday Chanim was summoning vile creatures from the depths of the dungeon dimensions and that brother of yours spends a statistically significant amount of time folded into oragami shapes with his arms right up the fiddly bits of poorly designed starships." I says dryly.

Errai poorly suppresses a chuckle.

"Like right up there, I swear he's got like three elbows, per arm." I say as the man in question takes a flight of stairs five at a time.

"You're quite adorable yourself." She says folding up the tea set and passing me its bag.

"Damn straight I am." I'm not really.

This time she laughs in my face and tousels my greying hair. I scowl at her but all she does is laugh harder.

"See you tonight?" she asks.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world." I say happily, smiling and sliding the bag onto my back where I can run without it interfering too much.

"Great." She pats me on the head from her vantage point and begins her own loping run to the south, angling for the downwards stairway so she can get back down to her Gym.

I check my stuff and head north at speed, a spring in my step more than can be explained by mere magic.

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